Bhavtegh Singh Gill won the shoot-off 2-1 against Petros Englezoudis of Cyprus in the men’s skeet final, after the two were tied on 58 out of 60, to deliver the elusive individual gold medal for the host in the World University shooting championship at the Dr. Karni Singh Range on Tuesday.
It was a commendable fare from the 21-year-old Bhavtegh, who had won the Junior World Cup silver in Propetto, Italy, earlier this season.
Bhavtegh could have won the gold in normal course, but missed one of the last two birds to trigger hopes for Englezoudis. However, he sealed the yellow metal by nailing the first pair, after the Cypriot missed one of the first two.
With qualification topper Abhay Singh Sekhon (122) clinching the bronze medal, the joy of the shotgun camp was complete.
Earlier, competing in her maiden international event, Yashasvi Rathore, a first year student of Manipal University in Jaipur, won the women’s skeet bronze after having qualified in the second place. She could have got a better medal but for missing the last pair.
In the indoor arena, Simranpreet Kaur Brar won the 25m sports pistol bronze behind Minseo Kim of Korea and Heloise Fourre of France. She lost the chance for a better medal by one point to the Korean, who nosed ahead in the climax. The Korean shot four out of five on her last seven series for a remarkable burst for gold.
In women’s air rifle, India drew a blank as Manini Kaushik (632.0) and Sanjeeta Das (631.7), who had shot brilliantly in qualification to be right at the top, slipped to the sixth and seventh spots.
India did collect the team gold in three of the four events of the day to bolster its overall collection.
The results: 10m air rifle: Women: 1. Audrey Gogniat (Sui) 250.9 (631.0); 2. Hyobeen Kim (Kor) 248.2 (629.5); 3. Anna Janssen (Ger) 228.2 (629.8); 6. Manini Kaushik 164.9 (632.0); 7. Sanjeeta Das 144.5 (631.7); 29. Disha Dhankhar 624.7. Team: 1. India 1888.4; 2. Poland 1886.4; 3. Germany 1884.5.
25m sports pistol: Women: 1. Minseo Kim (Kor) 35 (580); 2. Heloise Fourre (Fra) 34 (582); 3. Simranpreet Kaur Brar 30 (585); 6. Payal 18 (579); 12. Arshdeep Kaur 573. Team: 1. India 1737; 2. Italy 1732; 3. Hungary 1726.
Skeet: Men: 1. Bhavtegh Singh Gill 58(2) 119; 2. Petros Englezoudis (Cyp) 58(1) 121; 3. Abhay Singh Sekhon 47 (122); 6. Harmehar Singh Lally 17 (118). Team: 1. India 359; 2. Cyprus 351; 3. Italy 351.
Women: 1. Giada Longhi (Ita) 52 (119); 2. Adela Supekova (Svk) 49 (114); 3. Yashasvi Rathore 38 (114); 8. Vanshika Tiwari 111; 9. Mansi Raghuwanshi 109. Team: 1. Italy 338; 2. Slovakia 334; 3. India 334.
Published – November 12, 2024 07:29 pm IST